Courtesy NHRA Communications
INDIANAPOLIS (June 27, 2023) – Reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion Brittany Force has been nominated for the 2023 ESPYS Best Driver Award for her record-breaking performance during her 2022 championship season.
Force claimed a second world title in her 11,000-horsepower Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac dragster during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.
This is the second time Force has been nominated for the Best Driver Award, with the first coming after her 2017 championship season when she became just the second woman to win an NHRA Top Fuel championship and the first in 35 years. It puts her in in select company of NHRA stars who have been nominated two or more times for the prestigious award, joining the likes of her father, John Force, (2000-03, 2011, 2014), Tony Schumacher (2007-2010), Greg Anderson (2005, 2011), Erica Enders (2015, 2021) and Steve Torrence (2019, 2022) as NHRA drivers with multiple ESPYS nominations. Force’s sister, Ashley Force-Hood, was nominated in 2008.
“I am so excited to be nominated for an ESPY. This is an honor not just for me but for my team, John Force Racing, and NHRA. I’m so proud of the season my team and I had in 2022 to get us this nomination,” Force said. “Out of all the different series and motorsports, to be one of only four drivers nominated is huge. That in itself really elevates the sport of NHRA drag racing.”
Force enjoyed a spectacular 2022 season, setting records across the country en route to claiming her second world title. She finished the 2022 season with five victories and 10 No. 1 qualifying positions, setting 16 track records along the way. Among her biggest accomplishment was bettering her own national record speed with an incredible blast of 338.94 mph to close out the season at the NHRA Finals In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Force also currently holds the national ET record of 3.623-seconds, a mark she set in the 2019 season.
Joining Force on the ESPY Best Driver ballot are NASCAR’s Kyle Larson, IndyCar’s Josef Newgarden and Formula 1’s Max Verstappen.
“It’s also a big honor to be recognized next to the other nominees,” Force said. “They’re all such big names in the sports world, they’ve set records, won championships and it’s pretty crazy to be listed alongside this group of athletes.”
This year’s ESPYS will air on Wednesday, July 12, from Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Fans can vote for Force here from now until Sunday, July 9, at 8 p.m. ET.
